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Brutal attack on Sin Chew  journalist in Segamat must be condemned with a new government resolve to root out triad activities and influences  from all levels of society Media Statement by Lim Kit Siang (Petaling Jaya,  Saturday): The brutal attack on Sin Chew Jit Poh reporter, Pang Tian Koo, 41, in Segamat on Thursday, almost severing his right hand, must be condemned in the strongest possible terms, accompanied by a new government resolve to root out triad activities and influences from all levels of society.  It has become a grave  concern of all Malaysians that the country seems to be heading towards a new and more vicious level of lawlessness, not only with a shocking increase in crime rate and the fear of crime, particularly sex and violent crimes   as recently highlighted by the gruesome Canny Ong abduction-rape-murder but more blatant forms of criminality and triad activities.  Such blatant crimes and criminality in Malaysia, as if the police forces of law and order do not exist or matter,  reached a new degree of depravity when the MCA officially disclosed that thugs have started to advertise  their “services” by circulating business cards, offering to “fix” someone for a fee, i.e. RM300 to bully someone, RM400 to “fix “ some one, RM1,000 “to teach someone a lesson” and RM2,000 to cause grievous injury.  The five weeks after the heinous Canny Ong abduction-rape-murder on June 13 have greatly shaken public confidence in the ability of the police forces to reduce crime and the fear of crime, as there had been a long list of violent and sexual crimes – whether in broad daylight in Jalan Kinrara, Puchong on Monday where a Form 3 school-girl was abducted and raped or the case reported in today’s press, where a 19-year-old girl in Sungai Plong, off Sungai Buloh was abducted after a staged road accident, taken on a six-hour terror ride where she was repeatedly raped by two men in various spots – and who subsequently demanded  RM10,000 ransom money from her family to free her.  The police must change its entire mindset and philosophy to face up to the pervasive fear among the public about  crime, not only about their own safety but also the safety of their loved ones.  The failure of the police to be responsive to the needs of the law-abiding community, their fear about crime and concerns about the rise in crime rate is best illustrated by the hostile police attitude towards the AWAM’s Citizens Against Rape Gathering tomorrow in refusing to grant a permit, even after the originally-scheduled Anti-Rape rally and march at Bangsar Shopping Complex was changed to a gathering at the  Mid-Valley Exhibition Centre.  As the police refused to issue a permit for the gathering,  the  Mid-valley Exhibition Centre had cancelled the AWAM booking fee and aborted  the programme.  It is a great shame that the police had  aborted and sabotaged  the AWAM’s Citizens Against Rape gathering tomorrow, when it should be giving full support and co-operation to elicit greater citizen and community support in the war against crime. (19/7/2003) * Lim Kit Siang, DAP National Chairman